So I was surfing the web, reading about George Harrison's guitars. There was a story about how George acquired his Ric 360/12 which I found especially interesting. Here it is (excerpted from this):
"GUITAR BIO: When Francis C. Hall, owner of the Rickenbacker guitar company, found out that the Beatles would be in New York during the winter of 1964 to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, he arranged a meeting with the band at the Savoy Hotel to show them some new instruments, including the company’s new prototype Rickenbacker 360/12. Harrison was sick, however, and didn’t attend. Luckily, Lennon did, and he thought the 360 might be the perfect match for his bandmate. “John Lennon played the 12-string, and he said, ‘You know, I’d like for George to see this instrument. Would you mind going over with us and letting him play it?’” Hall recounted later.
“So it was the man from Rickenbacker who brought these guitars ’round for me,” Harrison recalled. “As for my Rickenbacker 12-string, I started playing it for the first recording sessions we did after we returned from those three Sullivan shows we did in ’64.” The unique, chiming tone of George’s new guitar led the British press to dub the Rickenbacker 12 “the beat boys’ secret weapon.”
Many of us LTGers have heard Mark Dronge tell a very similar story about how he was unsuccessful in an attempt to place a Starfire 12-string with the Beatles. He gave it to Lennon, but that was as far as it went. What I was wondering was who first had this idea. Maybe one of our more adept web researchers already know this or can find out?
(My apologies if this has already been discussed on LTG)
"GUITAR BIO: When Francis C. Hall, owner of the Rickenbacker guitar company, found out that the Beatles would be in New York during the winter of 1964 to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, he arranged a meeting with the band at the Savoy Hotel to show them some new instruments, including the company’s new prototype Rickenbacker 360/12. Harrison was sick, however, and didn’t attend. Luckily, Lennon did, and he thought the 360 might be the perfect match for his bandmate. “John Lennon played the 12-string, and he said, ‘You know, I’d like for George to see this instrument. Would you mind going over with us and letting him play it?’” Hall recounted later.
“So it was the man from Rickenbacker who brought these guitars ’round for me,” Harrison recalled. “As for my Rickenbacker 12-string, I started playing it for the first recording sessions we did after we returned from those three Sullivan shows we did in ’64.” The unique, chiming tone of George’s new guitar led the British press to dub the Rickenbacker 12 “the beat boys’ secret weapon.”
Many of us LTGers have heard Mark Dronge tell a very similar story about how he was unsuccessful in an attempt to place a Starfire 12-string with the Beatles. He gave it to Lennon, but that was as far as it went. What I was wondering was who first had this idea. Maybe one of our more adept web researchers already know this or can find out?
(My apologies if this has already been discussed on LTG)
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